I was browsing the Uilleannobsession website and came across a photo of the late Ronnie Wathen playing his Wooff B set.

It seems to be quite an unusual set. Firstly, the ends of the drones and regulators seem to be flared. I've not seen this before. Secondly, the 4th regulator. It's not so unusual to have a 4th reg but this one seems to have a very large diameter. Finally, the chanter seems to be tied into the neck of the bag.

PJ wrote:I was browsing the Uilleannobsession website and came across a photo of the late Ronnie Wathen playing his Wooff B set.

It seems to be quite an unusual set. Firstly, the ends of the drones and regulators seem to be flared. I've not seen this before. ...

I think that's take from Egan's work... the bell-shaped ends are, IIRC, separate pieces that can be removed for easier access to the end-pins - they slip over the solid part of the regulator end cap. There may be a pic of an Egan with this feature somewhere on PDarcy's site, not sure

Somewhere I have a tape of Ronnie playing the set in breaks during a long poem he wrote about Geoff Wooff. I have a couple more photos of that set. Seeing the inspired my ordering a set from Geoff which had the same regulator caps.

Somewhere I have a tape of Ronnie playing the set in breaks during a long poem he wrote about Geoff Wooff. I have a couple more photos of that set. Seeing the inspired my ordering a set from Geoff which had the same regulator caps.

billh wrote:
I think that's take from Egan's work... the bell-shaped ends are, IIRC, separate pieces that can be removed for easier access to the end-pins - they slip over the solid part of the regulator end cap. There may be a pic of an Egan with this feature somewhere on PDarcy's site, not sure

billh wrote:
I think that's take from Egan's work... the bell-shaped ends are, IIRC, separate pieces that can be removed for easier access to the end-pins - they slip over the solid part of the regulator end cap. There may be a pic of an Egan with this feature somewhere on PDarcy's site, not sure

Bill

That feature was modelled on Dan O Dwod's pipes

Bingo:

Patrick D'Arcy wrote:Iain Cameron sent this one also of Dan O'Dowd's Egan set. He says, "this was taken at Bettystown and we actually had a go at playing them but my dad couldn't get it together as they were so easy and Dan just sat and laughed at him".

Those long Ivory end caps hide the "stopped end correction" pistons which help to focus the gammut by adjustment of the closed length of the bore in the way that an organ pipe is tuned. A similar idea is used on the closed chanter of the Northumbrian Small Pipes.

The very large diameter fourth regulator was not really a double bass but a double Baritone... so if the normal Bass is an octave lower than the Tennor then this forth reg. was an octave lower than the Baritone and had the notes E, G, F# and D in decending order of key touches aligned with the C,B,A and G keys of the Tennor.... shame the lower section of it disapeared... although there is someone currently restoring it.

Yes the styling of much of the Ronnie pipes was borrowed from the work of Michael Egan and those end cap shapes especially from the Dan O'Dowd set, though that one does not have the adjustment pistons.

I made this set in 1982 and it is based on another Egan set which John Wayland took to Australia in 1911. The set had been bought by Wayland after the death of the previous owner Michael Wallace who, according to Egan himself, was one of the two finest pipers he had ever heard.

All the metalwork is solid Silver on the Ronnie set and all the key blocks were metal lined...